Dubrovnik: Day-3 & 4 in Croatia

The next day mid-morning, after checking out of the Double Tree Hotel in Zagreb, we headed straight to the restaurant recommended by the Bosnian taxi driver. Gladne-Oci was a short walk from the hotel, and we settled down for an early lunch.

At Gladne-Oci, Fried Croatian bread - an appetizer we got hooked to.

The food here was really good, and in large (really large) portions. We realized a single main course dish could have fed us both. After the heavy lunch, we set off for the airport to catch our short flight to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is Croatia's top tourist destination, on the Adriatic coastline. It has been made famous recently due to the Game of Thrones connection (episodes featuring King's Landing were shot there).
We landed in Dubrovnik in the early evening, and took a taxi to the hotel - Hotel Komodor. We realized our first mistake then - the taxi was quite expensive, around 40 Euros. The hotel itself was not very impressive. Rooms were small, not very comfortable, but still live-able for a few days. In anycase, we did not plan to spend much time in the hotel room!
 As soon as we were settled, I headed out to a nearby car rental shop, and got a Peugeot on rent. We needed the car, as we were planning to drive down to Split later. I am not a big fan of Peugeots, but this was no Hertz rental - this was the only car available, and the rental agreement was a small slip of paper with the owner scribbling the rates on it! We drove towards the old town, and I missed a turn, and almost headed half-way back to the airport before realizing this. However, this wrong turn got us to the cliffs above the old town for some great views.

View of the old town.

 We finally drove into the old town, parked in a lot, and a short walk later, were at the main "Pile Gate" entrance. There are a number of paid tours, including Kayak tours. Since it was evening, the tours were all closing down for the day. We entered the gates and started discovering places on our own.

Pile Cove - aka "Blackwater Bay"

We ended the evening by heading for the well-known "bar-on-the-cliffs" or Buza bar. A small doorway and a narrow flight of stairs leads to this place. We almost missed it, as you wouldn't realize a bar could be behind such a narrow doorway.

Buza bar - on the cliffs.

Zagreb & Pltvice: Day-1 and 2 in Croatia

We landed in Zagreb, Croatia on a rainy Saturday afternoon in July 2016. This being our first trip to Eastern Europe, I was getting a "Kings Ottokar's Spectre" vibe. Like Tintin, we traveled via Frankfurt, Germany. Unlike Tintin, the pilot did not throw us off the plane! We landed in Zagreb and took a taxi to our hotel - Double Tree - in downtown Zagreb.

View from the hotel room

The city seems to have elements of both Eastern & Western Europe in it's character. There are parks, cafes, cobbled streets, cathedrals and museums, with a tram line running through it.

"Ulisca Grada Vukovaara" street

Our first destination was the Zagreb Cathedral, or the "Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary" which is usually the top tourist destination. Even though it was a weekend, the place was not too crowded.

Zagreb Cathedral

It's a lovely Gothic-style church, somewhat similar to the Notre Dame in Paris. Two tall spires flank it, with statues and carvings all over the entrance.

Statues at the entrance

Cambodia Travelouges Part 3: Kbal Spean and Bantey Srei

While in Siem Reap, we were staying at a nice boutique hotel called "Indochine Pavillion". 
Thanks to a guide book in the hotel, we came to know of a place known as "The River of a Thousand Lingas", a.k.a. Kbal Spean. It sounded like an interesting place to see, once the more touristy temples like Angkor Wat & Bayon are already done. So we inquired at the reception and arranged for a visit to the place. The helpful staff also suggested to visit another temple called "Bantey Srei" on the way back.

Kbal Spean - The Bridge Head

KbalSpean translates to "Bridge Head", and is a natural constriction of the river Tonle Sap. The rocks on the river bed are carved with many Shiv-lingas, and other figures from Hindu mythology. Like most names in Siem Reap, "River of Thousand Lingas" does not mean that there are actually 1,000 of them, but mean that there are a "great many". The site is a bit of a way off from Siem Reap and the Angkor archeological park area, and requires a half-day trip by tuk-tuk or taxi. I opted for the taxi, as it is faster, and would save us some extra time to see other places too. We also got to know from tripadvisor that to reach the place one has to trek for about 40 minutes through the jungle. Some posts in tripadvisor forums actually discouraged tourists from going to Kbal Spean because of this trek, but for us, it was the icing on the cake (both me and my wife love a good trek, especially in when it's through an enchanting jungle path like this one). The trek is not too difficult, although at some places, the path is a bit rocky.

Starting off the trek.

Jungle path to reach Kbap Spean.

The trek leads you to a spot where the river is flowing over a number of large rocks, which are carved. The one most striking ones if the "Reclining Vishnu".

First sight of the river.

"Reclining Vishnu" in Kbal Spean.

The rocks on the bed of the river is also carved with lingas. These Lingas are supposed to signify fertility, and the people believe the Tonle Sap river is blessed with fertility due to these carvings.

This is why it's called "River of a Thousand Lingas"

On reaching the spot, we got a local guide who was hanging around there. The guy did not really push us to hire him, but offered to show us good spot for photos, and some difficult-to-find carvings.

You may miss this without a guide.

Another difficult-to-find carving hidden in the roots of a tree.

After exploring all the carvings in the river bed, there is a great spot where you can cool off under the waterfall. It's a welcome and refreshing break from the heat! Here it was useful that we had a guide with us, as he offered to hold our bags, and also click pictures for us, like the one below!

Fun spot to cool off! Careful of slippery rocks, though.

After exploring Kbal Spean, and paying our guide (he happily accepted 10 US dollars) our taxi driver took is for lunch at a nearby Cambodian restaurant. The food was not quite remarkable (not bad, either). What was interesting was the Cambodian version of spring-rolls. Unlike the deep-fried, oily variety, that is the norm in all Chinese restaurants in India,  these were very fresh & salad-y with a delicately thin steamed rice-paper & lettuce wrap.

Very fresh and green sprint rolls.

 

Bantey Srei - The Citadel of Women

I'm not really sure why this temple is translates to "The Citadel of Women". The temple is built of reddish-pink sandstone, and not as large as Angkor Wat or Bayon. But, what is really striking about it is the extremely detailed sculpture on the walls. The guidebook says that this temple is the most "Indian-inspired" of the Cambodian temples, and seeing it, I could agree that this is true.

Entrance to Bantry Srei

Close up of the entrance.

The carvings remind one of other temples in South India like the Shore Temple in TN, and Hampi, and Belur/Halebidu in Karnataka (both of which we also visited after this trip). It's almost as if a team of Indian temple sculptors landed in Cambodia, and decided "OK, let's show these folks what we can do!" 
Not a single inch is left un-carved here. It's really like there was a deliberate effort to fill in every last bit of space with carvings. There's carvings depicting Hindu gods, as well as scenes from epics like the Ramayana.

The detail is impressive.

Scene from Ramayan - Bali and Sugreeva's fight.

A lovely tree in a pond outside the temple, with red flowers scattered in the water.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video maybe worth a million. So here's one each of Kbal Spean...


and Bantey Srei...

Cambodia Travelouges Part Two: Angkor Thom & Ta Phrom

While I wrote about the more famous Angkor Wat visit earlier in part one of this series, this post is about a series of temples & monuments that we visited after seeing the majestic sunrise at Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom, which in Khmer means "Royal City" is a group of temples and monuments, close to Angkor Wat.

Bayon - The Temple of a Thousand Faces

Bayon  is instantly recognizable by the multitude of serene and benevolent faces carved on it's towers.

Bayon

Another view of Bayon

These faces are numerous around the temple, and some authors and historians refer to this as the "Temple of a Thousand Faces". The real number of faces could be closer to a few hundred though, by my reckoning, but that does not make it less impressive. Each of these depict a set of four faces, oriented facing the four cardinal directions. Each face has a benevolent and compassionate smile. It could be that these faces represent Brahma, but it was mentioned by our guide that these represented the king who sanctioned the building of this temple (Jayavarman VII).

Another view of the face of Jayavarman II.

Cambodia Travelouges Part One: Phnom Penh & Siem Reap

So I'm just back from a great trip to Cambodia with my wife. We also visited Singapore, as there is no direct flight to Cambodia from Bangalore. Singapore is a nice but touristy place; and I will pen a blog about it soon, but the experience in Cambodia is definitely worth sharing first!

One Night in Phnom Penh

Most tourists travel to Cambodia with the intention of visiting Angkor Wat, and other popular temples and monuments in Siem Reap. However, our itinerary was such that we had to spend a night in Phnom Penh. This was primarily due to the fact that buses in Cambodia do not run between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in the late evenings. What seemed like a forced stay, became quite a pleasant experience, as we had time for a "Sunset adventure cruise" on the Mekong river. For a fee of 15 US dollars, a small diesel-powered boat took us around the banks of the river for a great view, plus a drink included.

The boat

Sunset on the Mekong

Getting to Siem Reap

We had booked on the Giant Ibis bus from the hotel. The company (Giant Ibis) was highly recommended, as they have new buses, and their drivers drive safely. The buses have WiFi, but they also have iPad veiling data-hogging tourists who devour and shred the bandwidth to pieces. Throughout the trip, I preferred using 3G data (I had bought a 2.5GB data SIM at Phnom Penh airport).
During the journey, I realized why buses do not operate after dark here. The highway between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (as are most roads in Cambodia) is a 2 lane road, which is not well lit. While most drivers in Cambodia drive safe, there are a few who are rash, and these few - combined with the lack of proper lighting - make it unsafe to drive at night. The bus took a total of 7 hours to reach Siem Reap. It included one small break at a roadside restaurant, and a longer stop at a bigger restaurant, named "The Banyan Tree".

Angkor Wat - The City That Is a Temple

Angkor Wat is, of course, the most famous monument in Cambodia. It's on their flag, their currency notes, and even their beer! The name "Angkor" is a corruption of the Khmer word "Nokor", which, in turn is derived from the Sanskrit "Nagara". "Wat" means a temple, so Angkor Wat literally means "City Temple", or a better translation, "The City that is a Temple". 
The temple was built around 1150 AD as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. As with other temples in the Angkor region, the central towers represent the mythical Mount Meru. Mount Meru has many myths and legends associated with it in Hindu culture. One of these is that when Manu was warned of the Great Flood by the fish-avatar of Vishnu, he built a boat (similar to Noah's Ark), and navigated the flood waters to reach Mount Meru.

Angkor Wat at sunrise.

We visited the temple at 5AM to catch the sunrise, hoping to beat the crowds. However, the place was teeming with tourists, all waiting with their cameras to catch the sun rising over the temple's towers.

Even at dawn, the place is teeming with people!

A clearer view of the temple

The walls inside the temple has carvings depicting the Ramayan & Mahabharata. The wall with the Ramayan carvings depict scenes from the battle of Lanka. In the picture below, Ram is on Hanuman's shoulders, firing an arrow at Raavan, while Lakhsman and Vibheeshan look on.

The battle of Lanka. Ram on Hauman's shoulders.

Yet another wall depicts another scene from Hindi mythology, the "Samudra Manthan", or churning of the ocean. Although there are some differences in the Cambodian interpretation of this story, for example, Vishnu is shown as churning the ocean, while in the Indian legend, it is Shiva, if I am not mistaken.

Samudra-Manthan

Inside the temple, there are about three levels. The first with these wall carvings, an altar, and a "Hall of a Thousand Buddhas". At this point, maybe I can mention that although this was a Hindu temple originally, it was later converted to a Buddhist one. In fact, in one of the statues here, you can see the Buddha sitting on a seven-headed snake. This points to the possibility that (maybe) the statue originally depicted Vishnu, and was later modified to represent The Buddha.

Main Altar in the first level.

The second level is a open-air courtyard which leads to the towers of the temple, while the third and final level is when you ascend these towers.

The second level courtyard.

Carvings of Apsaras on the second level.

The third level has a dress-code - both men and women need to have their shoulders and knees covered (although knee length shorts seem to be acceptable). There is a staircase which is quite steep, and opens up only around 7:45AM. We had to wait in the second level for sometime before the temple authorities allowed us to ascend.

View of the towers from the second level.

Shrine of reclining Buddha.

Statue of Buddha sitting on a seven-headed snake. This probably represented Vishnu earlier.

Hill Stations of the South: Ooty

Hill stations are the quintessential holiday destination for Indians. For those who do not know, a "hill station" is a small town nestled in the hills, where the climate is much cooler than in the plains. Most hill stations in India have a British Raj legacy. When the Brits came to India, they saw it as a land of immense opportunity, and wanted to rule over it. However, the heat & dust of the Indian summer would sometimes get a bit too much to bear for these gents, and they went about the length and breadth of the country looking for cooler places to rule from. One of these intrepid British explorers - a Sir John Sullivan by name - chanced upon a place in the Nilgiri mountains in South India. The place was known as Udhagamandalam, which obviously the British could not pronounce. So they decided to call it "Ootacamund", which we Indians found strange, so finally everyone settled for "Ooty".

29kms from Ooty.

Today, with the British sent back to their little island, Ooty (or Udhagamandalam as it has been re-re-named), remains a well-visited tourist spot in South India. The place has a nice cool climate, and still has, at least in some places, good pollution-free air.


Things to Do & See

Quite frankly, there’s little to see in Ooty. Most of the sightseeing can be done in a day. There’s the peak of "Doddabetta" which is the highest point in South India. It’s worth a visit, however, the place is generally swarming with people. The Botanical gardens is highlighted as another place to visit, but is no big deal really, and the Ooty lake... again, you dont miss much if you skip this.

View from Doddabetta.

The really nice places to see are a bit out of town, for e.g. the Pykara lake, which is about an hour’s drive away from the town. The route is scenic, but roads are usually quite bad. Then there’s Conoor, which is another smaller hill station just 18 kms off Ooty. Conoor also has some cliffs like Lamb’s rock & Dolphin’s Nose which may be worth a visit. The drive to Conoor also passes through some really nice tea plantations.

Tea Plantation in Conoor.

Pykara Lake.

And the best thing to do in Ooty is... sit back in a comfortable chair, enjoy the weather, sip your favorite drink & read a good book!

Old books

I happened to run into a very old Children’s Encyclopedia in my parent’s house in Calcutta. I’m on vacation here for a week, and this has been quite an interesting find. It is one of a set of volumes from my father’s collection. 

Children’s Encyclopedia

There is absolutely no indication of the date of print on this book. I find it a bit frustrating, as I can see from the brittle yellow pages that it is quite an old book. But sadly, there is nothing - no date of publishing, no date of printing or any other indication. My father is also not very sure, but he thinks it’s most likely from the sixties. Looking at the style of illustrations in the book, it does remind me of the 1960’s.

Illustrations.